Black man killed by police mourned

PHILADELPHIA — Relatives and friends of Walter Wallace Jr. gathered over the weekend to mourn him amid renewed calls for peace during the investigation into the Black man’s shooting death last month by Philadelphia police.

Several hundred people crowded into the National Baptist Temple Church in Philadelphia on Saturday for the funeral, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Wallace, 27, was killed Oct. 26 outside his house in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in Philadelphia shortly after officers arrived. Family members have said they called 911 to seek help because Wallace was going through a mental health crisis. Police said he was shot after ignoring commands to drop a knife.

Mourners filed past an open casket to pay respects to the aspiring rapper, with some pausing to kiss his cheek or stroke his folded hands.

“He was just a genuinely caring person,” said fellow rapper Chad Telfer, 27, who wore a shirt with Wallace’s picture. “He was like a brother to me.”

Wallace’s wife of just 24 days, Dominique Wallace, addressed the crowd tearfully. She gave birth to his ninth child, a daughter, just days after he was killed.

“They took him from me,” she sobbed before collapsing into the arms of relatives. “My daughter won’t be able to know her father. What am I supposed to tell her?”

A minister read the names of other Black men and women killed by police around the country, and a mourner read a poem about the Black Lives Matter movement.